Thread by lightman.
It's long been the case in the U.S. that different groups of people choose to celebrate different aspects of the Christmas story. Merchants, of course, celebrate the giving of gifts by the Magi to the Christ child because the symbolism encourages shoppers to knock themselves out making the cash registers ring.
Secular humanists celebrate the notion of good will toward men, even though they're hard-pressed to articulate a cogent reason why anyone should feel all warm and tingly toward anyone, much less complete strangers, in a godless, empty universe.
Christians celebrate the wonder of the creator of the universe becoming one of us in order to sacrifice himself for us in our lostness.
Yet, until now, there's been one aspect of the Christmas story that never gets celebrated -- the slaughter of the innocents. King Herod, you'll recall, exercised his sovereignty over the children of Bethlehem by having everyone under the age of 2 put to the sword so that he wouldn't have to suffer a competitor to his throne.
Now comes word that in what certainly appears to be a celebration of Herod's exercise of his right as sovereign king to choose the deaths of those children, the Indiana Planned Parenthood affiliates are selling gift certificates this Christmas season which can be used for, inter alia, procuring an abortion.
It happens that lots of people are disgusted by this, but I think it's the perfect gift to celebrate that part of the Christmas narrative, Herod's infanticide, which rarely gets much positive recognition...
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thread by me.
THE debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide is seldom far from the public eye. We have had a controversial documentary, "Right to Die", showing the death at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich, of a patient with motor neurone disease.
More locally, there has been a repeat TV screening of MSP Margo MacDonald's documentary about assisted dying and news coverage of the launch of her consultation paper which she ultimately hopes will lead to legalisation of assisted suicide in Scotland.
Over the years that I have been involved in the debate, I have seldom if ever seen one side convincing the other, so this article probably will not win any converts. The convictions about the rights and wrongs of the issues are deeply held. It does worry me though that these convictions sometimes seem to be founded either on gut feelings about our personal rights, or other gut feelings that it contravenes some sort of basic religious or moral code, rather than being well informed by practical realities.
When it is presented simply in terms of my right to a dignified death, how could anyone disagree? To quote Margo MacDonald: "... all of us have the right to die with dignity and only we ourselves can determine when life is intolerable." Surely any opinion to the contrary must be irrelevant, probably originating from a stuffy, conservative medical profession or from religious dinosaurs, neither being prepared to embrace a progressive concept for modern society. And surely in this day and age we can devise legislation to enable the safe adoption of this ultimate act of compassion into standard medical practice! Assisted suicide? Dying with dignity? Of course! Why on earth not?
I find it disturbing that the word "dignity" in this context has been hijacked so that it is now regarded as synonymous with euthanasia or assisted suicide. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society has been rebranded as Dignity in Dying, and if you go to Zurich to end your life, it is to the Dignitas Clinic. The implication is that medical care which does not include assisted suicide or euthanasia therefore lacks a fundamental component of dignity...
Thanks for the ping!